UPDATE — Criminal Asked to be Forgotten
Just days after the European High Court of Justice ruled that people have the “right to be forgotten,” Google is getting requests from criminals wanting links to information about their crimes removed.

Tuesday’s ruling stated that under European privacy laws, individuals can have the right to request search engines remove links to information they feel is no longer relevant.

As of Friday, Google had received multiple such requests from Europeans, a source close to the company familiar with the situation told USA TODAY.

How the requirement will be implemented isn’t yet known.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

This precedent set in EU court means that United States firms “can no longer hide behind their servers being based in California or anywhere else in the world,” according to Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship.

The case was brought to court by a Spanish man who wanted to have search-result links relating him to a real estate auction in 1998 removed from Internet history. This requires a search engine to edit content, which it historically does not do. It is still unclear how Google will actually implement this, but they will likely fight the ruling.

That’s the short term result — because it’s easier for the courts to enforce an action against a small number of search engine companies. But this case sets a precedent for data cleaning that follows an existing EU directive. So, it’s not a stretch to assume that today’s ruling will eventually lead to cases ordering that the original data itself be removed … although this may take a number of years.”

The tech giant will have to respond to these new data privacy standards. Will Google and others be forced to rethink how they handle links to your past, or will they successfully push against government rule?

” is one of the most wide-sweeping Internet censorship rulings I have ever seen,” Wales said.

The Global Rebellion

Various countries, such as Brazil and Germany, have set initiatives that encourage regional online traffic to be routed locally rather than through the U.S. These are likely the first steps in a fundamental shift in the way the Internet works.

Since the … revelations about the scale of state surveillance, Brazil’s government has published ambitious plans to promote Brazilian networking technology, encourage regional internet traffic to be routed locally, and is moving to set up a secure national email service.

In India, it has been reported that government employees are being advised not to use Gmail and last month, Indian diplomatic staff in London were told to use typewriters rather than computers when writing up sensitive documents.”

Based in Australia, David Michaelis is a world-renowned international journalist and founder of Link Tv. At aNewDomain.net, he covers the global beat, focusing on politics and other international topics of note for our readers in a variety of forums. Email him at DavidMc@aNewDomain.net.

About the author

David Michaelis

Based in Australia, David Michaelis is a world-renowned international journalist and founder of Link Tv. Winner of Peabody award. At aNewDomain, he covers the global beat, focusing on politics and other international topics of note for our readers in a variety of forums. Email him at DavidMc@aNewDomain.net.

Glad to hear this enough is enough! Since when does OUR data become a profit center for a company? How bout this one, oogle & others crawl YOUR website then monetize YOUR work! Its dead wrong and needs to stop!

We do content.

aNewDomain Media Inc. is a non ad-supported, independent media site covering news, tech, music and politics. But we do have to pay the bills.

That's why, if your company is looking for a journalistic-quality content blog or you need world-class editors, writers, videographers, designers or HTML jockeys, you've come to the right place.

We definitely do content. And we can do it for you.

Check out our sample content site to get an idea of what our team of 100 well-known journalists, editors, photographers, video producers, animators, cartoonists, web designers and social experts can do for you. Bmod is based on the zine we created from scratch for leading smartphone maker, HTC.

We've also delivered content to Dell, IBM and other F100 firms. And we've helped a long list of startups who we helped get a great start on content, too.

How does it work? Our team just plugs into yours and we hire more staffers to match your sector. You get shareable and authoritative journalistic content almost immediately, and an entire blog or zine packed with great material within 30 days.

Contact me, editorial director Gina Smith, to find out how and why professional journalists deliver superior content and at more affordable rates than any PR or marketing-led content house ever will.